France suspends 3000 unvaccinated Health workers as per new rule

Picture courtesy: BBC

A new rule, which came into force on Wednesday, made vaccination mandatory for the country's 2.7 million health, care home and fire service staff.

Following the rule, about 3,000 health workers in France have been suspended because they have not been vaccinated against Covid-19.

But French Health Minister Olivier Véran said on Thursday that "most of the suspensions are only temporary".

Earlier the President had warned all the workers on 12 July that they should take their first vaccine dose by 15 September or resign.

Even after the President's warning, some people are still not ready to take the vaccine and due to this the health care service is at risk of being disrupted.

In one hospital in South France, about 450 workers have been suspended who are protesting outside the building. Similarly in another southern city, one hospital has confirmed that they had cancelled all non-urgent operations as they do not have vaccinated workers. An emergency doctor and left-wing MP said that we have to keep them on the jobs until they have been replaced.

But Health Minister Mr Veran said that "the continuity of care and the security of care and quality of care was assured yesterday in all hospitals and medico-social facilities", although a few services, such as MRI scans, were impacted for a few hours.

France is not only the country to introduce a vaccine mandate. Italy and the US also implemented plans for mandatory vaccination or to be tested every week.